The Amy D. Dream That Just Keeps Growing
Photos by Patrick Daily and Julie Kuliecza
Eight years ago, while living out her professional cyclocross dream, Amy Dombroski was killed in a training accident in Belgium. The tragedy rocked the cycling world.
Amy had grown up in Vermont, lived in Colorado, and then made her way onto a European professional cycling team. Her tenacity, kindness, and love of a bicycle life left an undeniable mark on people around the world.
To honor her memory, friends and family came together to form the Amy D. Foundation, a nonprofit aimed at giving women the support and opportunities to chase their cycling dreams and continue living the kind of life Amy D. loved.
From One Athlete to a Growing Program
In its first year, the Foundation supported its very first athlete, 25-year-old cyclocross racer Erica Zaveta, with material, mechanical, and moral support.
It was a new program supporting a young racer, but the combination proved wildly successful. Erica won her first professional UCI race and made her first trip to Europe, racing World Cups and Kerstperiode classics in Belgium and following in the pedal strokes of Amy D.
The following year, she signed her first professional contract with Maxxis-Shimano Pro CX.
Over the next five years, the Foundation grew from supporting a single athlete in a single discipline to providing elite racing opportunities across multiple disciplines.
It branched out into mountain biking and fielded composite road teams at U.S. stage races, giving women without contracts the opportunity to compete at the UCI level. In 2019 alone, the Foundation supported 40 women.
Alumni of the Foundation include Olympians Mara Abbott and Megan Jastrab, who also became the 2019 Junior Road World Champion, along with numerous riders who used the program as a springboard to professional teams and the opportunity to pursue their cycling dreams.
Others have found success away from racing as businesswomen and entrepreneurs.
Whether it's on or off the bike, the Foundation measures success by the confidence it inspires in women to pursue whatever lofty dreams they may have.
A New Direction in 2020
In 2020, when the global pandemic brought much of the world and bike racing to a standstill, the Foundation entered a long period of reflection.
It had already proven that it could give women the opportunity to compete at the highest level and create an environment where talented racers could shine.
But with racing stopped, the Foundation realized it could become more than an elite development program. It could also help bring more women into cycling at the grassroots level and strengthen the broader riding community.
Building the Community
For the 2021 cyclocross season, the Foundation took a different approach to carrying out its mission of creating opportunities for women to pursue lofty dreams.
It became a year focused on building the cycling community, creating more opportunities for women and underrepresented groups, and getting more people on bikes in a fun and supportive environment.
Foundation alumni from around the country planned to host free cyclocross clinics in Tucson, Southern California, Louisville, Richmond, and Chicago.
Instead of supporting just one or two aspiring professional cyclocross riders, the Foundation also planned to offer multiple scholarships for riders attending U.S. Cyclocross Nationals in DuPage County, Illinois.
The scholarships weren't limited to elite racers. They were open to women looking to compete across a variety of categories, including non-championship age groups, juniors, single-speed, and beyond.
The idea was simple: bring more people to the biggest cyclocross race in the country and give them a supportive, positive experience.
By building the community at the grassroots level, the Foundation hoped to give more people the opportunity to pursue professional racing if they chose, or to carry the lessons of a bicycle life into the world beyond two wheels.
A Dream That Keeps Growing
What began as a community's way to honor the memory of one of its own has grown into a national Foundation creating opportunities for more and more people in new ways each year.
It's the kind of thing that would bring out that radiant Amy D. smile, the one no amount of mud could cover up.
